Area disabilities board to consider bylaws, moving case management office

The head of the Cape Girardeau County Board for Developmental Disabilities wants to bring some order to her embattled organization.

If she isn't ousted as board president first.

At its monthly meeting Tuesday, Dory Johnson will ask her fellow members to adopt policy and procedures that she believes could have stemmed some of the board's recent problems, including ethical concerns that led to one board member's resignation and still-lingering questions about another's business practices.

"These are just common-sense type things," Johnson said Thursday. "But common sense definitely doesn't always win out."

Johnson also intends to ask the board, which is in charge of overseeing taxpayer-funded services for people with developmental disabilities, to move its targeted case management office to another Jackson building, one that she says will better serve those clients as well as remove the "dark cloud" of conflict that she believes hovers over the existing one.

However, at that same meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the county administration building, Johnson may also be fighting to keep her post as president. The agenda also includes election of officers, and Johnson recently said she fears certain board members may be planning to name someone else to the job.

"In my previous comments, that's what I said I thought would happen," Johnson said.

'My gut instinct'

Others involved in the situation agree that there may be a movement to remove Johnson as board president. Douglas Morrison, who has a 24-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, has attended every board meeting for months and has applied to replace Bryan Noack on the board. Noack resigned June 17 after Johnson and Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Jay Purcell questioned Noack's ability to serve without bias because he also works as the paid executive director for Perry County's disabilities board.

"My gut instinct is they're going to get Dory Johnson out of the driver's seat and put Jeff Baer in it," Morrison said. "It's too bad, too. That board is out of control, and she's trying to change it."

Baer, the board's treasurer and a Jackson accountant, has also been accused of ethical breaches for conducting board business with clients of his Jackson-based accounting firm. Calls to Baer's office went unreturned Thursday, but he acknowledged late last month that he negotiated and voted for a lease that pays a client and business partner $1,800 a month for the board's case management office at 902 E. Jackson Blvd. Baer also admitted that the taxpayer-funded program buys supplies, products and services from several of his firm's clients. But he said it wasn't a conflict because he has never directly profited from those transactions.

"If we had bylaws, I don't think there would have been some of these questions," Johnson said. "I think they would have answered just about anything that has come up. It's something this board has needed for quite a while."

Purcell agreed.

"All it does is set out a clear set of rules and guidelines to keep them honest," Purcell said. "I have a hard time believing that anybody would be opposed to it. If someone is opposed to having a policy in place, I'd have to start asking why they would be against that."

With Purcell's help, Johnson has researched two other Missouri disabilities boards that have bylaws, and she emailed copies to the rest of the board. The policies from Boone and Jackson counties both lay out clear conflict-of-interest rules, vote recusal requirements and guidelines governing the behavior of members and procedures for meetings.

While the decades-old Cape Girardeau County board may have implemented bylaws long ago, the board doesn't have copies anymore, Johnson said, and has been acting for years without any real structure.

Easier access

At the meeting, Johnson will also suggest moving the targeted case management office, which connects those with disabilities with services, to the former Realty Executives building on West Main Street in Jackson. The proposed office is a one-story building and easier to navigate for the disabled than the current two-story building, Johnson said.

While rent is roughly the same, the utility bills from recent months are much lower than those for the current building, she said.

"It looks to be quite a savings," Johnson said. "And it wouldn't have a dark cloud hanging over it. It would be a fresh start."

While only board members can vote for executive officers, Purcell said he believes that Johnson has done a good job as board president. "I just hope she isn't penalized for pointing out things that are wrong," he said.

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